Republic of South Africa, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma at the African Union
African Diaspora in Europe Regional Consultative Conference, Paris,
France
11 September 2007
Honourable Co-Chairs
African Union (AU) Representative to the European Union
South African Ambassador to France
Representative of the African Union
Representative of the Caribbean Countries
Representative of the African Diaspora in Europe
African Ambassadors in Europe
Representative of Different Diaspora Organisations
Distinguished University Professors and Academics
Distinguished panellists and guests
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Allow me to express my gratitude to all of you who have devoted time to
participate in this Regional Consultation.
Our thanks also go to the steering committee for their sterling and tireless
effort in putting together this conference.
Why the African Diaspora Summit? Is it only to connect Mother Continent and
all the Africans outside its borders? Is it to define what binds us together?
Is it to share our laments and jubilations? Is it to chart our path towards a
shared destiny? Is it to define who we are, what values we share, amass our
collective strength and wisdom?
These questions are important not only in themselves but because answering
them will give us a chance to define who we are, what binds us, what our
tribulations are, what our aspirations are and what we would want this
generation to bequeath to future generations.
Being able to define ourselves is very important because for a long time we
have allowed other people to define us, to "pigeon hole" us and determine our
place in this global village.
I will quote an extract from one of my favourite authors, Ben Okri - in his
book "In Arcadia", the character Lao, has the following to say about his
condition:
"I live in despair all the time. Society has perfected the conditions for it. I
live a life of endless stoicism. Itâs a wonder I get from day to day without
suddenly going berserk and screaming genocide myself. Itâs a wonder I get from
day to day without cutting my throat, unable to drag myself through one more
minute of endless rage and humiliation and being excluded, judged,
misperceived, colour-coded in all things, denied intelligence, suspected of
crimes, burglaries, drug-peddling, muggings, murders, robbing old ladies, of
somehow always being in the wrong place at the wrong time, for the greatest
crime of all which is simply being alive and breathing the air on this good
planetâ¦."
Doesnât this sound familiar? This is how some have elected to perceive
us. What is important for us is that we have to give ourselves our own
definition, our own identity.
Where there is some truth it is imperative to discover the cause and
circumstances that give rise to it. We have to be agents of change, wherever we
may be for the creation of a better life for all Africans in a better world.
The question to consider is how we going to achieve that change?
It is unfortunate that as Africans we are susceptible to believing the worst
about ourselves and our Continent.
And those of us who work in the media more often than not tend to entrench
rather than challenge such misperceptions and perpetuate what has been
described by Ben Okri.
The first change has to be within ourselves: belief in ourselves and our
capacity and to express solidarity amongst ourselves wherever we may be.
Iâll continue to use the words of Ben Okri from the same book:
"Donât sleep through life thinking that all is well under the sun and
within society. If you see them dragging me off donât look away. If I cry out
listen. Donât doubt first. If an unnatural mugshot appears of me in the papers,
and I am accused of murdering ten people, donât pass sentence on me in your
mind because of the gruesome blown-up nature of the picture. Donât let them
manipulate your response. Be aware that there are secret laws for different
people, and these secret laws are carried out by the most innocent of citizens
by you, by your handsome sons and lovely daughters, and by most of the people I
know and likeâ¦."
"Being more human means being more awake to the beauties and injustices of
life. Iâm shamelessly on the side of beauty, of the spirit, of the heroic in
humanity. But as a daily victim of the human capacity to cast one into
darkness, I cannot deny humanityâs capacity for meanness, complacency, and
cowardice. I donât believe in being in a state of perpetual rage. I choose
humour, intelligence, imagination, elliptical angles, love and wild wakefulness
as my weapons. And I know that all these words are but as water poured into
desert sands. You do not hear themâ¦."
"One of my trials right now is simply whether as a black human being Iâll be
allowed in."
It is the duty of Africans in the Continent and elsewhere to HEAR the words
being shouted by Ben Okri.
As Africans gathered here today, it is our task to fight against these
labels that dare to define us, these stereotypes and racist profiling that dare
to define the African â all Africans â as less than human.
No longer shall we ensure such scorn and misinterpretation. No longer shall
we accept the lowly status others have given us. We do not accept these labels,
this denigration and enforced marginalisation. We refuse racism and reject
injustice!
Our task henceforth is to interpret ourselves, to define ourselves, to give
shape to our own identity, to believe in our own ethics, to take responsibility
for our own actions and to harness our capacity to overcome suffering and
together boldly and fearlessly to pave the path to our destiny.
And we shall work towards this destiny of African development with pride,
with "humour" and "intelligence", as Okri suggests and armed with imagination
and with love and wakefulness!
Our quest therefore through this Dialogue is to rally behind the call for us
collectively to take a global responsibility for our own development, for the
African condition in its totality that covers the ground occupied both by
Africans in Africa and in the Diaspora.
This meeting here today and tomorrow is also about the opening up of more
vistas in which we can create more opportunities and possibilities for the
voices of Africans to be heard to influence the shape of the world to come.
Over the next two days, we will deliberate and chart the way forward on
crucial issues such as migration, global governance, peace and security,
sustainable development, climate change, knowledge sharing and most importantly
the empowerment of the vulnerable groups such as women, youth, children, the
disabled and the elderly.
Our deliberations should also focus on ensuring that the brutal experience
of slavery and slave trade does not manifest itself in new and sophisticated
forms like human trafficking.
As Aime Cesaire asserted in his poem, Return to my Native Land:
"No race holds a monopoly of beauty, intelligence and strength
There is room for all at the rendezvous of conquest."
Indeed this is only the start of what we all hope will be a permanent
dialogue between Africa and its Diaspora. This Conference here in Paris is one
of the building blocks of an initiative that we believe will ensure greater
co-operation across continents, a concerted collective effort towards the
sustained development of the African continent that will contribute to the bold
assertion of Africans where-ever they may find themselves as equals on the
international stage.
Meeting in France, the country that gave birth to human rights through the
French Revolution of 1789, that inspired Toussaint Lâouverture and his comrades
to establish the first Black Republic of San Domingo in Haiti in 1804 is
somewhat special and inspiring.
President Mbeki addressing the French National Assembly in 2003 quoted the
words of the Jacobin Maximillian Robespierre in February 1794, words that are
described as the "Principles of Political Morality:"
"We wish, in a word, to fulfil the intentions of nature and the destiny of man,
realise the promised of philosophy, and acquit providence of a long reign of
crime and tyranny. That France, once illustrious among enslaved nations,
may, by eclipsing the glory of all free countries that ever existed, become a
model to nations, a terror to oppressors, a consolation to the oppressed, an
ornament of the universe and that, by sealing the work with our blood, we may
at least witness the dawn of a bright day, of universal happiness. This
is our ambition â this is the end of our efforts â¦"
President Mbeki explained that:
"I have cited them because they communicate an inspiring message about a French
people that dared to be free, that dared to act boldly, to create a new
world. We too have dared to absorb them into our own consciousness
because, though two centuries old, they tell us what we should do about our
patrimony and ourselves."
"I have made bold to recite them in this hallowed chamber because they have
suggested that we have a right to make demands on a nation which cannot but be
a great nation, otherwise it could not have sprung upon the world an
epoch-making Revolution and placed on our firmament a lodestar that cannot be
extinguished, the Declaration of the Rights of Man."
France, like the rest of Europe, is home to many Africans just as Africa is
home to many Europeans.
We recognise that the African Diaspora in Europe continues to face various
challenges such as xenophobia, racial discrimination, political and
socio-economic marginalisation. As our Continent engages the European Union in
a strategic partnership, we have to use our collective strength to address
these issues.
A nation so great as France with the European Union, a region so democratic,
so conscious of human rights, so concerned about humanity as a whole should act
in a way that confirms this attributes not only towards the European migrants
but to the African Diaspora as well.
In coming together in the twenty-first century, we should also begin by
acknowledging that we are renewing relations and partnerships first forged
nearly a century ago when Africans from different parts of the world decided to
come together to discuss common problems and to forge a new road ahead.
As we meet here today we should acknowledge the contributions of a long line
of African and African Diaspora thinkers, that include in their midst, great
Pan-Africanist thinkers such as W.E.B du Bois, Sylvester Williams who organised
the first Pan African Congress in London in 1900, Marcus Garvey whose
declaration that Africa was for the Africans inspired an entire movement and
Pixley Ka Seme who called for the "regeneration of Africa".
This inspired many other Pan-Africanists, including African-American
writers, musicians and artists who embraced their own identity and fought
racism in the world.
The founders of African unity in the form of the OAU (Organisation of
African Unity), among them, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Ben Bella, Nmamdi
Azikiwe, Modibo Keita, Sekou Toure, Haile Sellassie and others should also be
acknowledged as helping to shape the journey on which we have now embarked.
Kwame Nkrumah argued that:
"The best means of doing so is to begin to create a larger and all-embracing
loyalty which will hold Africa together as a united people with one government
and one destiny."
Indeed your presence here signifies your interest in being part of the
rising groundswell of consciousness which affirms the view of our President
Thabo Mbeki, that the 21st century is indeed an African century.
So as we gather here in Paris, let us draw inspiration from the past
generations who laid the intellectual and cultural foundations for the tasks
upon which we now embark.
Theirs was to create the dreams for a better Africa and world.
Ours is to make these dreams come true and to achieve the practical
realisation of an African renaissance!
Our gathering here today has much to do with our common future as Africans
and people of African descent. Some would say that like a hen that gathers her
chicks under her wings for protection from danger, Africa the motherland, seeks
to reconnect with her scattered children, some of whom were forcibly and
brutally taken away from her many years ago.
Africa as a cradle of humanity has a proud history and had its glory and its
golden age. We are not only bound by history but in President Leopold
Sedar Senghors observation:
"What binds us is beyond history, it is rooted in pre-history. It arises
from geography, ethnology, and hence from culture. It existed before
Christianity and Islam, it is older than all colonisation. It is that
âcommunity of culture which I call African-nessâ"
President Mbeki recently said, "Therefore the political and economic
integration of Africa has to happen not merely because we share the same
history, populate common geographic space and exhibit identical physiological
features â important as these are â but because our destinies are intrinsically
bound together."
"Those who closely follow developments on this matter would be aware of the
enormous efforts that are being made by many countries and regions to ensure
that we do not unduly postpone our unity any longer. I am saying that the
various regional economic communities on our continent are engaged in processes
aimed at integrating our continent even when there is on-going debate about the
same modalities for integration."
"This consensus, that Africans, who for centuries together traversed long
distances of misery and subjugation, would, through the unity of their actions
build a path to a better future, not in isolation for one another but as a
united force, is not something new."
Our deliberations here today must speak to what we, acting in unity of
purpose, could do collectively and practically, to realise the African
Renaissance. The views and recommendations which will emanate from this
Conference will be consolidated together with the outcomes from the other
regional consultations, in preparation for a Ministerial Meeting which will
take place in South Africa from 16 to 18 November 2007.
The Ministerial Conference will feed into an African Diaspora Summit in
2008, where Heads of Government/State are expected to endorse a Declaration and
Programme of Action.
It is clear that we need, for example, strong communication, transportation
and institutional structures that will pursue the outcomes and recommendations
from all the regional consultations taking place worldwide.
A few weeks ago we met in Bridgetown Barbados to dialogue with our Caribbean
brothers and sisters. It is clear from the outcomes of that Conference that
there is much that Africa and its Diaspora can do together to address issues of
racism and xenophobia, the condition of marginality, exclusion and
underdevelopment, and issues related to reparations. We met in Barbados on the
occasion of the Bicentennial Global Dialogue which was held in recognition of
the Bicentennial of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. The legacy bequeathed on
us by the Atlantic Slave Trade, which was declared a crime against humanity,
continues to haunt us in so many different ways. I am happy to report that the
Barbados process was able make practical proposals for a new partnership
between the Diaspora of Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas.
The AU is making a clarion call on the African Diaspora to put forward
concrete and tangible proposals for cooperation between the AU and its
Diaspora. We in Africa are aware of some of the reasons why Africaâs best
educated and productive citizens find themselves on this side of the Atlantic-
and not at home, where their skills, energies and resources are in great
demand.
In responding to the call by the African Union, we must pay due regard to the
fact that we are building on many good initiatives that are already underway in
Africa which needs our active support.
One crucial element in our quest to reunite Africa and her Diaspora is the
need to acknowledge and accept our diversity as Africans as much as we
recognise the quest for greater unity. Africa is big with many countries,
nations, nationalities, religions, tribes and challenges.
This diversity however, should not preclude us from acting in unity of
purpose. From as far back as the Pan African Conferences held in Paris in
1919 and in Manchester in 1945, and even before that, initiatives have implored
on Africans to unite. Notwithstanding the divergent views we may espouse, we
should be united in our desire to see this better Africa in a better world.
The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) project of the AU
offers us a possibility to work together. NEPAD remains the blueprint for the
social and economic regeneration of the continent.
I would also like to make mention of the Pan-African Infrastructure
Development Fund in which Africa is using its own resources â its own financial
muscle â to address its developmental challenges. In this way we are putting
our own resources behind infrastructure projects on the African continent.
This initiative launched at the AU meeting in Ghana two months ago launched
a continent-wide 25-year equity fund to mobilise local and international
investment for infrastructure development in Africa with initial seed money of
US$625 million raised within the continent. The fund, the first of its kind, is
a public-private sector initiative, conceived, put together and completely
managed by Africans.
The Fund will initially focus on transport, energy, water and sanitation,
and telecommunications infrastructure investments. It will mainly focus on
projects that can contribute to the regional integration of the
continent.
Together let us all use this opportunity to strengthen the links that bind us
and to forge stronger networks for a better Africa and a better future for
Africans all over the world.
The poet and diplomat, Abioseh Nicol, speaks about the meaning of our
interaction in his poem "The Meaning of Africa". And I quote:
"We look across a vast continent
And blindly call it ours
You are not a country, Africa
You are a concept
Fashioned in our minds, each to each
To hide our separate fears
To dream our separate dreams
Only those within you who know
Their circumscribed plot
And till it well with steady plough
Can from that harvest then look up
To the vast enamelled bowl of sky
Which covers you and say
"This is my Africa"
"â¦.I know now that is what you are Africa
Happiness, contentment and fulfilment."
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
11 September 2007
